Noah K. Murray/ The Star-LedgerJustin Tuck said "the plan" is for him to play without a shoulder harness at some point this season. "When will that happen? I don't know," Tuck said.

Justin Tuck spent at least part of his bye weekend "in a tree stand" in the mountains hunting white-tailed deer. He didn't get any. But he did get something much more important over the break: rest for his left shoulder, which he admitted has been bothering him since he injured it in Week 2 at Dallas.

Asked how much the bye week rest helped, Tuck said, "a lot."

"It allowed me to do the strengthening work I needed to do, without having to practice and bang on it," Tuck said on a conference call with reporters Monday. "Gave it a lot of time to recover. It felt pretty good today; I'll probably do a little more work on it and have (Tuesday) off. I hope I’ll be that much better coming up this week."

Similarly, Eli Manning said he and his sore foot -- an injury to the plantar fascia sustained in Week 4 at Kansas City -- feel revitalized after the break, which the quarterback spent at alma mater Ole Miss on Saturday and flipping between NFL games on DirecTV on Sunday.

"The foot feels fine. It’s not an issue; it’s what I think is over with and done with," Manning told reporters Monday afternoon. "But I think a week off, not practicing, not putting any pressure or anything on the body or on the arm and everything, definitely helps and refreshes the whole body."

Manning has said his foot feels "fine" for weeks. Tuck, though, has admitted that his shoulder has limited him somewhat, a combination of both pain and the protective harness he wears on it.

Tuck sustained the injury when Cowboys offensive tackle Flozell Adams tripped him in the second quarter of the Week 2 game. Tuck had beaten Adams on a pass rush to the inside, so Adams stuck out his foot, and Tuck jammed his shoulder as he hit the ground.

The week after, Tuck was limited to third-down situations against Tampa Bay, but he hasn't missed any games.

"It's been an issue, but if you can go out there and play, you go out there and play," Tuck said. "Obviously, I haven’t been 100 percent, but I don’t make that as an excuse. Nobody is 100 percent in this league right now."

Tuck hopes he'll be able to play without the harness at some point this season.

"That’s the plan," he said. "When will that happen? I don’t know. Will that happen? I don’t know. But that’s definitely the plan. I would love to get to that point."

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The players were dismissed for the bye week after last Wednesday's practice and were back at the Giants practice facility around 8:30 Monday morning. Tuck said "guys were happy to be back, bouncing around, things like that."

The players have seen Atlanta's 28-19 loss to Carolina Sunday, but won't begin Falcons preparations until Wednesday. The Giants, of course, got a lot of help over the weekend with key losses in the conference and the division. MG will have more on that later tonight and in tomorrow's paper.